Saucy Monky - Disco Ball
June 26, 2003 by Eric Richardson
I've been debating between a couple songs from Saucy Monky's cd Celebrity Trash, trying to figure out what one I wanted to headline here. I ended up choosing this one just because I love how the chorus sounds. The interplay between the two vocals really appeals to me. For some reason I always find my music collection lacking in happy music, and this is a nice cd to fill that void.
mmm... wider is better...
June 24, 2003 by Eric Richardson
Today I bought a used 17" monitor to bring home and set up a dual-screen setup. I'm now running at 2560x1024, which makes my life quite a bit better. First thing I had to do was find some new wallpaper. This guy has a page with some good ones, mostly space related, but that's fine since I do work for NASA and all. Now the interesting part is figuring out how to position my stuff on a double-wide layout. I think I pretty much know how it'll work, but it'll take some time to get a feel for whether it'll really involve changing how I use my desktops. Fitting my propensity for old things, the monitor is from 1994, and cost a pretty $950 new. The manual includes information on how to hook the monitor up to an Apple Mac II, and also says that it is compatible with the "newly proposed VESA ergonomic standards." Exceptional.
United States v. American Library Association
June 24, 2003 by Eric Richardson
Yesterday the US Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision upholding CIPA, a law that requires libraries to install filtering software on their Internet terminals or lose federal funding. I've put up brief analysis of the case I wrote several months back. The court opinions are available here. There are two things that most bother me about this law, and the resultant court cases.
- Coverage of CIPA and the resultant cases has continually misrepresented the law to only apply to filtering for children. This is simply not the case. The law also includes requirements that filtering be in place for adults. The only difference for children is the added requirement to filter material harmful to minors.
- Fundamentally, Congress and the Court are making a requirement that libraries implement technical solutions that simply do not exist. Despite what Congress, the Court, or the filtering companies might want to say, there is not a filtering solution that can possibly comply simply with the requirements of the law (without additional gross overblocking). The law requires that the filter be disabled for adults who legitimately request it, but this isn't the simple matter people would like to make it out to be. A significant burden will be imposed on adult users, and there's no way around this with current solutions.
they don't make 'em like they used to
June 18, 2003 by Eric Richardson
Just to settle a personal question, I brought a scale down here to weigh the old SGI Personal IRIS 4D/25 I have. The box with monitor totaled in at a hefty 122 pounds. The box itself was 66 of that, the monitor clocking in the remaining 56.
Gus Black
June 18, 2003 by Eric Richardson
Morning Becomes Eclectic has their set with Gus Black up now. Check it out. I saw Gus back in the fall, and had pretty much forgotten about him until I saw his name come back up a couple places. I'm hoping to get out and see him in a lineup with Steve Reynolds at Hotel Cafe on July 3.